TOUR WITH THE CURATOR
“Country bin pull’em. Looking back together”
With Matthias Claudius Hofmann (Curator of the Oceania Collection)
Sunday, 24 November, 3 pm
What significance do millennia-old rock paintings from Australia have today? What potential do ethnographic and historical collections have for Indigenous communities, for museums and for post-colonial coexistence? Together with the Indigenous communities of the Wanjina Wunggurr - the Woddordda, Ngarinyin and Wunambal - the Weltkulturen Museum is taking a look back at the Frankfurt Frobenius expedition to the Kimberley region of north-west Australia in 1938.
This tour led by the curator will cover topics relating to the expedition’s research history and current interpretations of Indigenous cultural heritage. In addition, issues pertaining to collection provenance will be addressed and options for digitally returning cultural heritage will be discussed.
Curator Matthias Claudius Hofmann will illustrate these contexts with selected examples and provide in-depth insights into the exhibition.
Guided Tour with Curator Matthias Claudius Hofmann. PHoto: Weltkulturen Museum
Matthias Claudius Hofmann. Photo: Peter Wolff
Exhibition view entrance hall. Photo: Wolfgang Günzel
Leah Umbagai, ‚Message Stick für Frankfurt‘. Contemporary form of a traditional message stick, 2023, Image approved by Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation, Collection Weltkulturen Museum. Photo: Wolfgang Günzel
Camp of the Frobenius Expedition with Agnes Schulz, Andreas Lommel and Gerta Kleist, 1938, Frobenius Institute Frankfurt Collection. Photographer not documented
Wanjina figure at the Kalingi-Odin rock art site, 1938, approved by Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation, Frobenius-Institut Frankfurt Collection. Photographer not documented
